Get Ready For The Bots: Microsoft Unveils Developer Tools For Apps That Can Have …

Get Ready For The Bots: Microsoft Unveils Developer Tools For Apps That Can Have …

For years, Microsoft has provided its developer army with tools to build cutting edge apps, but now it’s asking them to try something new. On Wednesday at Microsoft’s Build developer conference in San Francisco, CEO Satya Nadella and his team unveiled new artificial intelligence and machine learning tools that developers can use to build “bots,” or apps that users interact with via natural speech as opposed to text input. Bots are the basis of what Nadella is calling Microsoft’s new push into “conversation as a platform,” which includes natural language processing technology built into Azure, Office 365 and Windows. Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant, introduced two years ago, is one example of a bot, but Nadella’s vision goes far beyond that. “We want to take the power of human language and…